Do people in your workplace often complain about their elbow hurting? Some occupations require employees to do repetitive movements with the elbow, such as continuously grip and lift heavy materials. In cases like this, an affliction may occur called tennis elbow. Although tennis elbow may sound like you play the sport it was named after often, it doesn’t mean you always get it from doing something athletic. In fact, orthopedic specialist at the Orthopedic Associates of Michigan Hand & Upper Extremity Center, Scott D. Burgess, MD, said “Most commonly, I see tennis elbow in men who do manual labor – factory workers, mechanics – people with repetitive activity associated with their occupation.” People who are doing these same movements daily at work, may be accumulating tiny tears in the tendon of the elbow. It is non-inflammatory, but due to overuse the outer elbow will get weak and sore. Overtime this is going to get pretty painful. So how do you fix it?

Stretch it out

U.S. HealthWorks provides orthopedic specialty care and wants to make sure your employee is in tiptop shape to be performing their duties. Some procedures that U.S. HealthWorks can help with in this situation are:

Surgical treatments

Reconstructive & anthroscopic surgery

Joint reconstruction

Sports medicine

While tennis elbow may sound serious, it does not necessarily mean treatment will be needed for very long. So for employees who lift heavy objects at work, simply stretching and staying in shape can help prevent tennis elbow from occurring or becoming a problem. Dr. Burgess stated:

“Stretching and good ergonomic practices can be very helpful. Beyond that, overall body conditioning is extremely important. If you’re in good condition, this type of injury is less likely to happen. If it does happen, it will heal better if you are in good condition.”

By altering some physical techniques at work, stretching, and staying in good condition, tennis elbow should go away quickly or could even be prevented from happening. But if for some reason modifying the activity doesn’t work, and the pain is severe, U.S. HealthWorks can provide orthopedic specialty care to resolve the issue.